Study: Expensive Fees Aren't Making Roads Safer

RICHMOND — Virginia politicians hoped that abusive-driver fees would make the roads safer. So far, speeders and drinkers are not paying attention.

A preliminary study released Wednesday finds no evidence that slapping bad drivers with expensive penalties is making the daily commute any safer overall. While reckless-driving arrests have dropped, speeding and DUI arrests have increased.

"The magnitude of the deterrent effect, if any, is not readily discernible," the report concludes.

What's more, the program's ability to generate road-maintenance money is highly unpredictable. Estimates could be off by millions of dollars, up or down, depending on collection practices or conviction rates.

The bottom line: The report from the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission could increase momentum to scrap the program, which has been a political nightmare for state lawmakers.

The JLARC report analyzes the first four months of the abusive-driver fee program, July to October 2007. It includes arrest data and an analysis of its assumptions on collections.

The program aims to generate about $65 million a year for road maintenance, once fully up and running. That could be too optimistic or too conservative.

For instance, motorists charged with reckless driving are often convicted of lesser infractions. If all were convicted of reckless driving, the state could take in another $18 million a year, the report says.

Then again, collections may drop because the state may have been too optimistic in estimating how much it can collect from drivers who have too many demerit points. The state is assuming an 80 percent collection rate. A Texas program has a 60 percent rate.

Splitting the difference, if Virginia ends up with a 70 percent collection rate, revenues could be off by about $2 million annually.

As many as 137,000 drivers could have their licenses suspended in 2008 and another 181,000 in 2009 because of inability to pay.

And that ability could hinge on where they were convicted. The law requires the court to collect the first of three annual payments, which could be as much as $1,000. Some courts are approving installment plans; others are requiring it all at once, the study says.

The interim report was developed for the Joint Commission on Transportation Accountability, which held its first meeting Wednesday. Two leading senators on the commission, a Republican and a Democrat, say the report confirms their position: the fees must go.

"I personally feel this substantiates my effort to repeal," said Sen. Edward Houck, D-Spotsylvania, who has pre-filed legislation to abolish the program. "This points out all the ambiguities, all the uncertainties, all the policy questions that were not even considered prior to enactment."

Sen. Emmett Hanger, R-Augusta, said he would like to replace the fees with a 1-cent gas tax increase, a more reliable way to generate money to patch the roads.

"In my opinion, we're not going in the right direction," he said.

Not everyone is convinced that the program should die, though.

Del. Joe May, the Loudoun Republican who chairs the commission, cautioned that the JLARC report is an interim assessment and said more data could provide a clearer picture of the program's effectiveness. He said the report did not reveal fatal flaws.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine addressed abuser fees on Tuesday with reporters and editors at AP Day at the Capitol.

"We've heard overwhelmingly, people don't like it," he said. "It should be at least changed, maybe eliminated."

Kaine said he wants the penalties to apply to out-of-state drivers as well as Virginians. The state should narrow the list of offenses that trigger a fee, which probably means eliminating reckless driving from the list.

The governor said he also wanted to look at six months of data on driver safety. The JLARC report looks at four months.

It found that reckless driving decreased by 10.6 percent. But during that same time DUI arrests rose by 9 percent and arrests for speeding increased by 7.6 percent.